By Josine Estuye
MANILA, (PNA) -– The thirty notches jump of the Philippines in the latest “Ease of Doing Business’ report of World Bank and International Finance Corp.” was seen to significantly improve the country’s employment situation.
Motoo Konishi, Word Bank Country Director for Philippines, said the major climb, which shows improvement of business policies, will attract more local and foreign investors to do business in the country.
“The ranking improvement did one thing; this allowed businesses to really ramp up their investments,” Konishi told a press briefing.
Konishi said investments will then translate to more jobs, allowing Philippines to address the problem in unemployment and reach the needed job generation in the coming years.
“The World Bank estimated that the Philippines needs to generate around 14.6 million jobs over the next four years,” he stressed.
“So why is it important? ‘Doing Business’ report measures the time and money that cost firms to operate with the various rules and regulations in the country. We focus to some cost of small and medium enterprises, which play a key role in generating jobs (in the Philippines),” he added.
Micro, small and medium enterprises hire over 95 percent of the labor force in the Philippines.
WB Financial Sector Specialist Nataliya Mylenko also echoed Konishi, adding the report will also allow policy-creating bodies to review business regulations in the country, to be able to maintain if not improve the ranking.
Mylenko said better policies shall make easier, faster and less costly business transactions, which will later on allow MSMEs and the Philippine economy to grow.